If there is one thing you can count on with a 9-1-1 season finale, it will end on a hopeful note.
The series has never been in the business of leaving its fans with massive cliffhangers that will have them stressing throughout the summer, and they haven’t started now with 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 18.
It’s a classic 9-1-1 hour in what it aims to achieve, but it’s also incredibly predictable, which is not necessarily a good thing.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this hour, though one could argue they spend too much on the emergency, considering the scope of what’s currently happening on the series.
But again, that’s a 9-1-1 finale.
This one felt extremely reminiscent of 9-1-1 Season 6 Episode 18, which involved an overpass disaster that put various members of the 118 in danger. Once all was well, we had a quick wrap-up to show everyone was in a good place to end the season.
Sound familiar?
The apartment building collapse was obviously the crux of the hour, and it was a well-done emergency, if not, sadly, very predictable.
(Apologies if I use that word on repeat, but it truly is the best way to describe this one.)
Considering Athena and Chimney’s estrangement, if there were going to be a big disaster, then naturally, the two people who weren’t getting along would be trapped together so they could sort out their differences.
Athena’s anger toward Chimney was a manifestation of her grief, but she was never really angry at him. She was grieving the loss of Bobby, and oftentimes when we’re in pain, we place blame or we misplace our anger.
Athena knew she wasn’t really mad at Chimney, but that also didn’t mean she was ready in those days and weeks right after Bobby’s death to deal with her complicated feelings towards the man who walked away from the lab disaster.
Chimney has always been presented as comic relief, but he’s so much more than that. It’s also great when the series remembers that Kenneth Choi is a beautifully gifted actor who can play just about anything you give him.
You need him to tell a joke? Incredible comedic timing. You need him to deliver the most rousing speech to rally the troops? There’s no one better.
Athena was always going to help Graham, and in another inevitable twist, both Graham and his nemesis, Donny, were trapped together in a critical life-or-death situation.
Chimney getting himself down there and the two, alongside Graham, working together was a feel-good in all the way the series is known for, but it wasn’t terribly original.
I expected Athena and Chimney to converse more while they were down there, perhaps have a little heart-to-heart while they waited to be rescued, but the reconciliation between the two was more about Athena seeing Chimney in a different light than maybe she ever had before.
It was about seeing the Chimney Bobby had talked about, the Chimney Bobby loved and respected so much.
Working alongside him like that, she could see him through Bobby’s eyes, which was a lovely way of bridging the divide created without using many words.
They certainly subverted my expectations with that one.
Once the whole crew rescued the unlikely foursome, I had a feeling Graham wasn’t as okay as he claimed to be in the beginning, because this specific rescue was very much meant to parallel Bobby’s death.
9-1-1 loves to bring things full-circle, and Graham sacrificing himself because he thought it was the right thing to do, knowing that his chances of survival were lower than Donny’s, was about as smack dab on the nose as the show gets.
But of course, unlike with Bobby, there were other options to explore, and with all the 118 working together, along with Athena, they brought Graham back from the brink of death.
Some would call that a miracle.
Athena getting a chance to tell Chimney how proud Bobby would be of him felt like something both Chimney and we needed to hear from her, and it was such a lovely precursor to Chimney’s big speech at the firehouse.
You know, Chimney was acting captain at one point, and things admittedly didn’t go great, but that was also a long time ago. Chimney is not the same person he was then, and he’s grown a lot as a man and a firefighter-paramedic.
Chimney is smart, capable, and, perhaps more than anything, respected by everyone around him. He has absolutely everything it takes to be a leader, and he would be a worthy successor to Bobby, who turned the 118 from a toxic workplace into a family.
Not everyone could give that speech and everyone fall in line behind them. But not everyone is Chimney Han, a man who has spent years doing what’s right, earning the respect of his peers, and establishing himself as a pillar of the 118 house.
The hour doesn’t end with Chimney officially stepping into the captain’s seat, but if that’s how things go, I would be more than happy for it.
Hen reiterated that she did not want the position, and she’s right to stand by that if that’s what she feels.
In the obligatory end-of-season montage they like to employ sometimes, we saw the Wilson family grow with the addition of Mara being formally adopted, and I think it’s okay for Hen to want to choose herself and what she wants at this time, as opposed to what others may expect from her.
And that line of thinking was a theme during this hour, as Eddie also had to decide what was right for him as he prepared to leave for Texas and had the most lackluster going-away party I’ve ever witnessed.
I don’t know why they had a going-away party for Eddie now instead of when he left previously, but maybe they just wanted an excuse to also celebrate his new job. But no one’s heart was really at that party, least of all Buck’s, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but bidding Eddie adieu yet again.
Eddie’s whole arc this season has been a jumbled mess, and I wish it were better here, but we still didn’t get what I feel has been one of the biggest things his storyline has missed: conversations with Christopher!
Everyone was sitting around the firehouse pretending to be happy for him, and when they gave him his turnouts, you could see the indecision written across his face. Yet, he remained steadfast, even when Pepa made a quip about him being so far away, nothing swayed him.
And honestly? He may have jumped into action to help at the scene, but even THAT didn’t stop him from wanting to return to Texas because he was looking at flights the second it was okay to do so.
Chimney’s speech helped him understand where his place truly is, but his decision to leave Los Angeles was always bigger than the 118.
It was about Christopher, and it feels criminal that we never saw a conversation between them before Eddie moved to Texas, AND when they decided to move back.
Everything with Eddie’s storyline has been start-and-stop, and there was a great opportunity during this hour to show Eddie away from the team and not only struggling with whether or not his place was in Los Angeles or Texas but also having that conversation with Christopher.
Don’t get me wrong. I adored that Eddie came to the rescue for his team in a way he couldn’t during 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 15, and it was bittersweet to hear him essentially ask, ‘What Would Bobby Nash Do?’ out loud.
But it would have been nice to hear what Christopher thought about potentially moving back to Los Angeles, especially after everything he went through from 9-1-1 Season 7 to now. And there just wasn’t any time for that.
Instead, we were left to assume that Eddie heeded Chimney’s threat (I say that good-naturedly) and chose to stay, and that’s fine, but such a big decision deserved deeper exploration.
Seeing Eddie and Christopher back together again in their Los Angeles home was beautiful, but it was another bittersweet moment because of the many missed opportunities throughout the second half of 9-1-1 Season 8.
And what about Buck?
Buck moving into Eddie’s house, subletting or not, was a story arc that amounted to…him moving right back out when Eddie moved back without even a conversation?
I’m majorly scratching my head at some of the narrative choices that have plagued these past few episodes.
While I understand that Bobby’s death would effectively pause so many stories, I wonder why certain ones were even introduced in the first place?
If I knew for sure that these narrative threads would be picked up later, I could be more optimistic about where things would go in season 9. But alas, I don’t have that kind of confidence.
Buck taking the steps now to find his own place feels like a retread of 9-1-1 Season 2, when he left Abby’s place, but it also doesn’t feel like that because while he was finally ready to move on from Abby’s and to something new, here he was just kind of going because he was no longer needed to sublet.
I did not like how this all played out, and if I’ve said predictable one too many times thus far, then I’ve also said missed opportunities a time or two.
The Buck and Eddie roommate experience was a missed opportunity, as was so much of their intertwined story, which dominated 90% of Buck’s personal story arc over the final ten episodes, and had no tangible resolution.
Aside from the Diaz boys, Buck, and the Wilson families’ ending montage moments, we saw Athena make a decision for her future, and giving up that house was probably the right decision because it no longer represented what it was meant to.
There has been much chatter around the series about whether or not Bobby Nash was decidedly dead and gone for good, and unfortunately, nothing they are giving us points in the direction of this being some elaborate ruse.
Bobby is dead, and that house was a dream for him and Athena, so without him there, it’s simply no longer the dream for Athena.
I thought perhaps the kids would move in with her, and they may try to start again in an unfamiliar structure, but a familiar place; however, fully moving away from that land and embarking on something new next season felt like another step in her moving forward into her new normal.
Another part of that new normal? Meeting the newest Bobby Nash, who was the latest member of the Han family.
The Han family could have chosen quite a few names, but considering how recent the events were and Bobby’s instrumental role in Chimney being able to hold that precious baby in his arms, it was a beautiful tribute to someone who meant a lot to them.
The jury is still out on whether the show can fully stabilize itself after such a monumental shake-up, and the end of the season did little to reassure anyone that it would.
Loose Ends
- The way Eddie sauntered onto the scene, looking like a million bucks, was a top-tier moment. Say what you want about the episode, but that was wonderful.
- Speaking of Eddie, the rescue of Ravi and Buck was one of the hour’s highlights because things were looking dicey there for a minute.
- Ravi was physically present more in the back half of this season with Eddie in Texas, but even though he was there, it still felt like they had no idea how to use him properly.
- So, we’ll have two new sets next season, with Athena and Buck getting new places. Fun!
- Let this be the last we see of Gerrard. Amen.
- Buck brought up transferring from the 118, there was barely a reaction, and then it was never addressed again outside Chimney’s speech. So I’m giving it as much attention as the hour did.
That’s a wrap on this season, and to be perfectly honest, this show will need a major reset for next season as they move forward into the next iteration of the series.
I wanted to be moved by this hour, but it was hard when I could anticipate what came next, and I felt increasingly deflated by what could have been.
But enough from me, now it’s time to hear from YOU.
You made it to the end — and that means a lot.
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I’ll be back soon to wrap up this season with a season report card, so make sure to come back, and let’s dissect the season together.
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